Midori Restaurant Sintra - Japanese with a Portuguese Soul

“Japanese with a Portuguese soul” is the tag line for Midori, this intimate kaiseki-style Japanese restaurant at the Penha Longa Resort near Sintra. It opened as such in 2017, and less than two years later was awarded its first Michelin star.

The room was redone for that opening, but the restaurant had its origins 25 years earlier. That’s when chef Pedro Almeida opened it as the first Japanese restaurant in Portugal. Originally, it was more classically Japanese, but in the crisis a few years ago, Almeida found a new pride in his home country and began rethinking the concept.

This iteration of Midori isn’t fusion per se—that would be insulting to both Japanese and Portuguese cuisine—but a thoughtful blend that manages to be a bit of both. Think caldo verde miso shiro (with cabbage, potatoes and chorizo oil in a base of white miso) and sakamushi clams (steamed in sake) in typical bulhão pato style (with garlic and lemon).

The intimate, seven-table dining room is fairly stripped-down, in typical Japanese style—well, a luxury resort version thereof—aside from a handpainted mural of a Portuguese caravel being welcomed by a Japanese geisha.